


All Clear

by JoMouse



Series: Dr. Malik [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Blood and Injury, Christmas, Doctor Niall Horan, Doctor Zayn Malik, Domestic, Don't copy to another site, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Kitchen Injury, M/M, Major Character Injury, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 08:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28348722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoMouse/pseuds/JoMouse
Summary: Zayn and Liam both have plans for a perfect Christmas Eve with their parents. Of course, true to fashion, nothing goes right.
Relationships: Zayn Malik & Liam Payne, Zayn Malik/Liam Payne
Series: Dr. Malik [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2076099
Comments: 17
Kudos: 55





	All Clear

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings and Salutations!
> 
> Happy holidays! Alright, I admit it, I wasn't going to write a story at all this year (as strange as it was not to revisit the Coffee Shop or the Isle of Wight) because of all the leech b.s. going on in the fandom. My heart just wasn't in it, until I realized that what I wanted to do was lose myself in a good Ziam story to forget it all. So, I decided to write one.
> 
> I turned to the Ziam group chat for prompts and Rita, Mara and Lupe all gave me ideas that I tried to mash together into one fic.
> 
> In the midst of writing and one comment from Zayn and I realized I had a sequel to [Make Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8727142).
> 
> Big thanks to my beta [Marie](HTTP://quietzap.tumblr.com) for looking it over and Mara for taking a sneak peek and encouraging me to keep going.
> 
> I hope this brings you as much joy as it brought me to write it! 
> 
> xx-Joey
> 
> Don't know 'em. Don't own 'em. Don't show 'em.

Liam stood at the sink, staring down at the small box in his hand before snapping it shut when he heard his boyfriend calling out to their families to inquire if they wanted any food or drink. Shoving the box in his pocket, he leaned back against the counter, lifting a beer bottle to his lips just as Zayn entered the room. He scrubbed both hands through his hair and let out a groan. 

“Whose bright idea was it to have both of our families over for dinner?” he mumbled, crossing the room to lean his forehead against Liam’s shoulder. He sighed, his entire body going lax when Liam wrapped his arms around him and pulled him closer.

“It was yours,” Liam whispered in his ear, breaking into a laugh when Zayn pulled back and started swatting at him. “Ready to start cooking?”

Zayn eyed the food spread out around the kitchen and shook his head. “I think we should, like, get our mums in here to do the work.” He held up a hand when Liam opened his mouth. “Not because they’re women but because they’re the best cooks we know.”

“I’ve learned a thing or two from my mum, and I know for a fact that your mum has taught you how to make a lot of different things.” He gestured to the contents of their spice rack spread out on the counter next to the stove. “And that’s a great thing because I only know what about three of those jars are for.”

Shaking his head, Zayn bumped him with his hip before turning to the hob and turning the knob for the burner below the pot of water they’d set there that morning. He frowned when it clicked, but nothing happened. Leaning down, he sniffed and could smell the gas, but it wasn’t igniting. He turned the knob to the off position and started patting down his pockets.

“Li,” he asked, and Liam looked up from where he was washing vegetables in the sink. “Have you seen my lighter?”

“I think it’s in your jacket,” he responded, face scrunched in concentration. He moved the vegetables to the cutting board. “There’s always a couple in the drawer in the table by the door.”

Zayn nodded and ducked out of the kitchen. He could hear their dads arguing about the match on television while their mothers discussed their sisters and their families. Reaching for his jacket, he went into the pocket, and instead of finding his lighter, he found a hole. He had a moment of panic as he patted the jacket down. His movements were crazy enough for the coat to fall off the wall onto the shoes lined up beneath the coat rack.

Kneeling, Zayn kept patting through the jacket, letting out a breath when his hands wrapped around the object he’d been seeking. It wasn’t the lighter he needed. It was something much more important. Removing it, he popped open the box and smiled at the contents. He tried to slip the box into his jeans, but they were too snug, so he took out the object and slid it into his pocket instead.

Standing, he opened the drawer in the table next to the coat rack, digging through the accumulation of bits and bobs that had taken up residence there. There was no lighter to be found, and he slammed the drawer shut harder than necessary and knocked the knickknacks on the shelves above the table around. A small figurine they’d gotten from their friend Harry when he and Liam had moved in together fell to the floor and shattered.

As he knelt to the floor to gather the pieces, he heard a shout from the kitchen. Forgetting the broken bits, he raced towards the sound, cursing when a sliver went into his bare foot. Hopping, he kept moving until he reached the kitchen where their parents surrounded Liam. His eyes went to Liam’s hand and the blood-soaked towel wrapped around it. The cutting board looked like a murder scene, and they wouldn’t be using that potato for anything.

“Let’s see,” Zayn said, crossing and taking Liam’s hand in his. Carefully, he unwrapped the towel from his head and winced. “Yeah, stitches. We need to go.”

He looked at their families and began apologising, but his mum waved him off. “Just go!” Their dads were shoving their coats at them, and Liam’s mum was trying to help him into his shoes. 

In less than a minute, they were on their way down the stairs towards the carpark. Liam leaned his head against the back of the passenger seat with a groan. He’d only caught a glimpse of his finger after he’d nicked it with the knife while cutting potatoes but it had been enough not to want to see it again. His left ring finger was throbbing, and he was feeling light-headed, but he wasn’t sure if it was from blood loss or stress.

“Keep pressure on it,” Zayn said, reaching over and squeezing over the towel while keeping his eye on the road.

“Make me,” Liam mumbled, relieved when Zayn cracked a small smile.

“We’ll be at the hospital soon.”

He let go of Liam’s hand to call ahead to the emergency department. Liam didn’t listen to his words, but his voice was tight and clipped. Professional, like he’d been when Liam had first met him in the very emergency room where they were headed. It had been a long time since Liam had ended up going there for an injury and he hoped this wasn’t the start of another round of three injuries that landed him there.

He wouldn’t trade any of those things that had landed him in Zayn’s examination rooms those nights a few years earlier, but he didn’t want to repeat them. He didn’t need to remind Zayn just how hopeless he could be at life. “I’m sorry,” Liam whimpered when they pulled up to the front door of the emergency room, Harry stood there in his scrubs with a wheelchair.

“Is that necessary?” Liam asked as Harry helped him into it and Zayn tossed his keys to the waiting valet. 

“Look at your hand,” Zayn said as he pushed Harry out of the way and grabbed the handles of the wheelchair to push him through the door. Liam ducked his head, pouting as he worked to keep his eyes away from his hand.

They bypassed the front desk where the long-suffering intake nurse gave them a wave. She called out that they were already checked-in. The person in front of her immediately began screeching at her. She turned a patient smile on the woman and began to calm her down.

“She needs coffee,” Liam told Harry.

Shaking his head with a small smile, Harry promised to get her one as soon as Liam was settled into a room. “Dr. Horan is on tonight, so he’ll be the one looking at you.” Harry looked at Zayn. “Liam is his patient,” he said, pointedly and Zayn flipped him off.

It didn’t take long for Liam to get settled on the bed in the room. Zayn stood next to the bed, his fingers itching to unwrap Liam’s hand and take another look. Liam knew if Zayn even tried to treat him while off-duty, he’d get into trouble with the administration. Instead, he rubbed one hand over Liam’s back while shoving the other in his pocket, fingering what he’d stuck in there right before Liam had shouted back at the flat.

Just as he was about to say ‘fuck all’ to waiting for Niall, the door to the room opened. Dr. Niall Horan appeared with Harry on his tail. “So, Liam, what brings you in tonight?” he asked, barely looking up from the file in his hand. 

“I mistook my hand for a potato,” he muttered.

Niall looked up at that and then down at Liam’s hand with a wince. Handing the file to Harry, he moved to wash his hands and put on a pair of gloves. Carefully, he pulled the towel away from Liam’s hand, frowning when he saw the blood was still flowing, although sluggishly. “Definitely going to need stitches.” He poked at it before smiling. “You didn’t cut clean through though, so it’s an easy enough fix.”

“I know the drill,” Liam said.

“That was, what, the second time you came to see me?” Zayn asked, elbowing Liam with a grin that faded when Liam didn’t respond.

The air in the room was tense as Niall and Harry worked quietly on Liam’s hand. “We can give you something for the pain,” he offered as he injected the anaesthetic to numb the finger.

Liam shook his head. “The Demerol is worse than the pain,” he said. Zayn was relieved to see a bit of a smile on his face, but he still wouldn’t meet his eye.

“So, I’m guessing Christmas dinner is put on hold,” Harry commented as he handed the suture kit to Niall. 

“Our mums took over,” Zayn explained. “It’ll be ready when we get home.”

“That certainly beats the meal the hospital is serving today,” Nial said before focusing entirely on Liam’s hand, only speaking to explain what he was doing next.

He stopped when Liam snapped, “I’m familiar with the procedure.”

When Niall finished and wrapped the finger with gauze, he opened his mouth to give aftercare instructions and snapped it shut when Zayn shook his head at him. Nodding, he turned to Harry and told him to prepare the discharge paperwork so that they could get out of there.

Harry left the room with Liam’s chart while Niall cleaned up. Once he’d taken care of that, he tossed his gloves and rewashed his hands. “Guess this put a damper on your big plans though,” he commented.

“Big plans?” Liam asked, looking up in a panic. How did Niall know? He hadn’t told anyone what he’d been planning to do that night. He reached his right hand into his pocket and felt the box, tightening his hand around it.

“He means dinner with our parents,” Zayn responded, glaring at Niall. “We were both so excited about spending the evening with them.”

Liam jumped when a voice overhead announced, “Security Alert. Lockdown. Emergency Department.” The voice repeated three times, and Liam frowned when Zayn groaned, and Niall hurried out of the room.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, but we aren’t going anywhere until they announce an all-clear on the security alert,” Zayn explained. 

“You can’t just get us out of here?” Liam whined. He didn’t like being at the hospital; the only good thing that had ever happened to him there was sitting next to him.

“Liam, this is for everyone’s safety. They don’t lockdown just randomly. And they wouldn’t do a drill on Christmas with the emergency room as busy as it is.” 

“Could anything else go wrong?” Liam said, burying his face in his hands before jerking upwards with a groan. “Guess, I answered my own question.”

“Rethinking that Demerol now, aren’t you?” Zayn teased. He pressed the nurse call button on the remote on the bed. 

“I don’t want that stuff, it burns,” Liam argued, trying to grab for the remote and cursing when he jammed his finger again. “Damn, stupid, useless hand.”

“Hey, I happen to like that hand,” Zayn said, taking it gently between his and rubbing his thumb over it gently. “I have plans for that hand.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring he’d stored there, moving it to Liam’s hand and freezing. “Shit.”

Liam glanced between the ring in Zayn’s hand to his bandaged finger, too thick for the ring to go over. Frowning, Liam pulled his hand back and cradled it against his chest. Zayn tries to get him to look up, but he is too busy fiddling around. “Liam, I’m sorry I can’t put the ring on you, but it doesn’t change the sentiment.”

Liam snorted. “So, you were planning to propose to me tonight.” It wasn’t a question, and the tone of Liam’s voice was odd.

“Yes.”

“And I ruined it by, once again, hurting myself so you couldn’t put the ring on me,” Liam said, and Zayn started to interrupt him, freezing when Liam looked up, holding another ring in his hand. “Maybe we should put this one on you instead.” 

Zayn gaped, and Liam chuckled. “You were going to…”

“I was,” Liam answered. “I am.” He slid off the edge of the table and knelt in front of him. Grinning, he held the ring up to him. “Zayn Malik, you have been keeping me safe since the first day I met you, and I want you to keep doing that, so will you marry me?”

“Yes,” Zayn said, holding his hand out and Liam slid the ring on, standing as it slid into place. Zayn tried to slide the ring onto the ring finger of Liam’s left hand, but it only made it to the centre knuckle. “We’ll have to keep this safe until you can take the bandage off. At least two days.”

Liam smiled and leaned in to press his lips to Zayn’s grinning when the overhead crackled above them. “Security Alert. All Clear.” It might not have been the most perfect proposal or anything like he’d planned, but it made sense for them.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say 'hi' on tumblr. I'm 'josjournal' over there!


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